Guild Wars 2

Oops meant to post this in Mesmer forums, but seems I dropped it in wvwvw forums.

Anyways, what I want to know is are there any abilities or trait ways that you can spec that help with being shatter burst AND good at removing conditions/surviving. Traditionally I understood shatter was

20.20,0,0,30

but I might run 20 , 20,0,10,20 to get the cleanse on heal.

Ive even though of trying 20,0,0,30,30 to try and take advantage of some of the group buffs up inspiriation since I often run in a tight knit group.

anyone got suggestions for a shatter build that is complete squish.

If you want to run Mender’s Purity in a shatter build the only way you can do it without losing much burst is 10/20/0/10/30 which I’ve heard can be pretty good with runes of speed and MoR. As far as having the best possible condition removal coupled with the most burst we can have that’s not possible nor should it be. You need to give one up for another, but I can see a 10/0/0/30/30 or 0/10/0/30/30 build being usable in a group setting. I would just think that Mirror Images would be almost a must to have then.

As far as handling conditions in a shatter build though it’s a delicate balance between when to burst and when to play defensive. Being familiar with other classes helps but it’s typically best to try and cleanse/burst after the enemy has blown major cooldowns or you can try for a quick turnaround burst if they start chasing you.

I am not too experienced on a mesmer but as a shatter build ...

I tend to run the torch with the torch cooldown and condition removal trait. You pretty much remove 2 conditions every 24 seconds.

Also I run the condition removal mantra, preset it before a fight and you can remove 4 conditions really easy if you get condi bombed.

Part of it is also timing stealth and what not and blurred frenzy/diversion.

killahmayne.9518:

I am not too experienced on a mesmer but as a shatter build …

I tend to run the torch with the torch cooldown and condition removal trait. You pretty much remove 2 conditions every 24 seconds.

Also I run the condition removal mantra, preset it before a fight and you can remove 4 conditions really easy if you get condi bombed.

Part of it is also timing stealth and what not and blurred frenzy/diversion.

Killah, sup!

That torch with traited removes 1 condition every 24 seconds. I thought it was a tooltip bug when you mentioned it, but I just went in WvW and gave it a spin. Still worse than ether feast’s traited in 10.

You can remove 1 condition from The prestige every 24 seconds. And one from casting Image, every 18 seconds. And if im not wrong, the bolts the Image fire, cure conditions on you as well. You will be shattering him, but he still may get a bolt off.

Generally if I need condition removal in shatter, I’ll take the mantra. It’s good to recharge when you’re on cooldown from mind wrack, and is high output and instant to use.

Wont using torch kill your damage?
Or am I missing something?

Other OH skills may offer more consistent damages but torch is quite powerful in shatter burst. For example easier for ileap to land while approach with stealth, and damage from prestige is a little nice addition. Or you can use prestige to bail yourself out after shatter etc etc. Quite a lot of things can happen in 3s stealth. But I do agree that iMage is horrible, I usually used it on shatter pretty early.

MoR (cleanse Mantra) has a number of advantages: it doesn’t take up a trait slot, it’s weapon-ambiguous, it has really high output as has already been said, and perhaps most importantly it’s instant cast. Particularly now with Immobilize being what it is, that split-second difference between an instantaneous break and one from say, a ground cast like Null Field, the difference can save your life. There are many lulls and evades where you can safely channel the skill.

The only time I would consider leaving out Illusionary Persona would be on something like Staff/Greatsword. If you have a MH sword it’s nigh obligatory I feel.

Dahitman.3102:

killahmayne.9518:

I am not too experienced on a mesmer but as a shatter build …

I tend to run the torch with the torch cooldown and condition removal trait. You pretty much remove 2 conditions every 24 seconds.

Also I run the condition removal mantra, preset it before a fight and you can remove 4 conditions really easy if you get condi bombed.

Part of it is also timing stealth and what not and blurred frenzy/diversion.

Killah, sup!

That torch with traited removes 1 condition every 24 seconds. I thought it was a tooltip bug when you mentioned it, but I just went in WvW and gave it a spin. Still worse than ether feast’s traited in 10.

But there are two skills with the torch, depending on how you are traited with other cooldowns the #5 is either 24 seconds or 18 seconds. or something like that.

No doubt I’d prefer Ether Feast because you don’t have to cast 2 separate skills to remove 2 conditions.

However people get torch cooldown for other reasons besides the condition removal. The minor trait adds vulnerability on daze. The extra 10 points in dom adds more +100 power. The torch i find is an excellent offhand for setting up shatters and you can pull off some excellent combos. The #4 does pretty decent damage in a power build and can add to shatter burst. It also gives you a relatively low stealth cooldown. Torch cooldown is useful for all this.

All this arguably outweighs the 10 you put for Mender’s Purity.

I think MoR is the best choice for WvW condition removal for reasons already mentioned: It doesn’t require any specific weapons or traits to be good and it’s probably the most reliable condition dump because it doesn’t require any specific positioning or timing. It will not be interrupted.

There are many good things to be said about torch, but 1 condition every 24s is nothing. Stealth + condition removal is a great tool in itself, but you can’t always count on the Prestige to snag something really bad like immobilize if you have a couple of conditions on you.
But MoR can be spammed for 4 condition removals in a very short time frame, something that can break you out of a situation that seemed like certain death (cripple+chill+immob i.e.) Sure, it blows all of your charges, but you are ready to charge again before the Prestige would be up, even traited.

Of course, nobody is saying you can’t run with both. I just don’t think torch really shines without PU, mostly because of the CD and the hard-to-time finisher.